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Happy feet

NAMPA, IDAHO, NATIVE Kenton Lee
wasn’t exactly looking for a mission. But he
wanted to witness the world that up until then
he had only seen on TV, encountered online
or read about. Six months of living and working in Quito, Ecuador, and another six in
Nairobi, Kenya, changed his life.

In Nairobi, Lee lived and worked at a
small orphanage with about 140 children of
different ages, whose parents had died from
HIV/AIDS. One day, while walking to church,
Lee looked down at a little girl in a white dress
and noticed her feet.

“I was blown away by how small hershoes were,” he recalls. “She had to cut openthe front to let her toes stick out. And in myAmerican mind, I remember thinking, ‘Whyis she wearing this pair of shoes? Why doesn’tshe put on a different pair?’ But, of course, shedidn’t have another.”Lee noticed many other children werewearing shoes that didn’t fit. He asked himself,“Wouldn’t it be great if there were a shoe thatcould adjust and expand so that kids alwayshad a pair of shoes that fit?” But none existed.

In 2009, along with friends and Costco
members Andrew Kroes, Nathan Roskam
and Tobin Rogers, Lee formed a nonprofit,
Because International, and, with no shoe-designing experience, began building a prototype. The Shoe That Grows (theshoethatgrows.
org) became their first philanthropic project.

A cross between a sandal and a running
shoe, The Shoe That Grows expands in the
front, the sides and the back.

“In the summer of 2012, my new wife
[Nikki] and I took 100 pairs of the prototype
shoes back to Kenya and put them in four
different schools around the country,”
he says. Feedback from children
and parents helped them
decide to produce the
shoe in two sizes
and three colors.

Thanks to atten-

Above, Andrew Kroes (left) and Kenton
Lee with children from Haiti after delivering 300 pairs of shoes. At right, school
director St. Claire Destine adjusts a shoe
for a Haitian student.

In our digital editions

Click here for details on The Shoe
That Grows from Kenton Lee. (See
page 14 for details.)

tion from news organizations and social media,
they expect to have around 20,000 pairs of shoes
distributed in 25 different countries by this
month, and they are currently working
on new versions: one that will cover
more of the foot for areas where
small insects tend to latch onto
children’s feet, and another for
cold climates.

“I never saw this coming,” Lee says. “I just
wanted to make a pair of
shoes for those kids at the
orphanage.”

—Steve Fisher

ONE NIGH T IN June 2008, Felecia Bernstein
noticed an injured cat in the middle of the
road. “I saw that all the cars were going
around it as it was struggling to get out of the
road,” recalls the New Jersey Costco member.

Bernstein took the cat to the nearest vet,who asked the feline’s name. “I didn’t knowher name,” she says. “But the girl was wearingpink scrubs, like a rose color. So I said, ‘Callher Rose.’ ”She was told Rose had a broken leg andthey wanted to observe her overnight. The costwould be $500. Bernstein hesitated. “I thought,‘If somebody else was holding my cat at thatmoment, would I want them to hesitate?’ ”Bernstein paid the bill. Rose died thatevening, but Bernstein wasn’t sorry she paid:“I thought, ‘At least she died in a hospital, notbeing hit 100 times over on the street.’ ”She didn’t want anyone else to experiencethat moment of hesitation in helping a sick orinjured animal. In September 2008, Bernsteinfiled the paperwork to get a 501(c) 3 statusand created Rose’s Fund ( rosesfund.org). Alldonations to the fund go to people who needhelp for their pets or animals they find.

“No money [for salaries or supplies] comes
out of the fund,” she says. “I don’t take out
money for stamps. Everything is donated by
myself or others.” Those who have been helped
often donate in kind through small monthly
increments or by making and donating products—such as dog bandanas—that can be sold
by Rose’s Fund at community events.

“In seven years we’ve helped over 500
families all across the United States,” Bernstein
reports. “There are no salaries. Everything we
sell is either donated or made by a volunteer.

And most of those are people we’ve helped.”Bernstein hopes word of Rose’s Fund willspread, saying, “I hate when I hear someoneends up euthanizing their pet and they say,‘Oh, I wish I had known about you.’ ”—SFo2